"Dean, you've been here for days."

"I'm fine."

"I know you're fine, but you're starting to go crazy."

"I said I'm fine."

"Okay, you're starting to drive me crazy!"

Sophia and Dean stared at each other, and Sophia couldn't help the slight upwards quirk of her mouth at their squabbling. It felt, just a little bit, like normal.

"Just, go out and get some air," Sophia told him. "Go get a bagel or something. And bring me back one."

"You're not supposed to eat those yet."

Sophia leaned forward, ignoring the twinge in her side as she exerted herself more than she had since she got to the hospital. "Dean, I know you," she reminded him gently. "And I know you're going stir crazy in here. I'm perfectly fine, okay? Go take a walk, breathe some sort of fresh air, and get something other than hospital food to eat. It'll probably do us both good."

He frowned, but Sophia could see his resolve weakening. "You'll text me if anything changes?"

She nodded.

He squeezed her hand. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

"I know." She watched him leave, shaking her head after him.

It's not that she didn't want him there. Hell, having him with her was a dream come true. But she was also more than capable of taking care of herself for a little while, and after all she put him through, the last thing Sophia wanted to do was add more misery to his plate.

Dean needn't have worried though. Sophia wasn't devoid of visitors for long.

She rolled her eyes when she heard the knock on the door, preparing herself to chastise Dean for taking all of a five-minute break, when Blake came into view. The words died on the tip of her tongue as she stared at her friend.

"Hi," Sophia finally said.

"You've just been cleared for more visitors," Blake told her. "Is it, uh, is it okay if I come in?"

"Yeah, sure."

Blake sat in Dean's empty seat. "So, this is weird," he finally said.

With as straight a face as she could manage, Sophia held out her hand. "Hi," she said. "I'm Sophia Shelby, I'm a nurse in the Emergency Department of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and I moved to New York a few months ago because I was being threatened by my serial killer ex-boyfriend."

The tension broke, and Blake broke into a laugh. He took her hand and shook it, shaking his head. "You know, when I figured there was something up with you," he said, still laughing, "that was definitely not my first guess."

"I'd be concerned about you if it was," Sophia pointed out.

"Fair enough. Although, you being an E.D. nurse makes a lot of things about you make a whole lot more sense. Those compressions were not the compressions of a high school lifeguard."

"I know." Sophia's expression dropped slightly. "I am sorry for lying to you," she told him. "And if it helps, I really did work as a lifeguard when I was in high school."

"You know, in terms of excuses for lying, I'd say yours is a good one," Blake pointed out.

"I suppose it is."

"So, L.A., huh?" he asked. "That's where you moved from?"

"L.A."

"You going back there once you get out of here?"

"Yeah, I think so. I have friends there, people who've I put through a lot of pain. I owe it to them."

Blake studied her. "Well, I think they'll understand." He shook his head, a shadow falling across his expression. "Let me tell you, seeing you come into the E.R. like that, surrounded by cops and agents, I don't think I'll ever forget it."

"You were here?" Sophia didn't know that.

Blake nodded. "They didn't let me work on you; everyone knows we're friends by now. But I saw the whole thing. It was, it was pretty scary."

"Yeah."

"Which, I shouldn't even be complaining about because I don't even know what you went through," Blake amended hurriedly. "The Feds didn't tell us much, but they told us enough."

"Hey, it's okay," Sophia said. "I want to know what happened, what's been going on since. I'm missing a few days of memory, and I've been stuck in this room forever, so, my knowledge of the past week and a few days is at a minimum."

"Well, I don't think anyone saw it coming that your name isn't actually Sadie," Blake said. He frowned. "Sophia, huh? That's going to take a minute to get used to."

"Well, I imagine they wouldn't," Sophia said drily. "The whole point is no one could guess."

"And then no one knows the whole story, either," Blake continued. "Except the people on your team, and they can't tell anyone. So rumors are going around like crazy."

"All better than the actual story, I'm sure."

"But I think everyone's just pleased you're doing well," he finished. "Carmen's been coming down every day to see if you're okay to have visitors. I know she was really worried."

Sophia nodded. "Well, send her my way. And Ruby. And Ronnie. And literally anyone else. I'm so bored."

"Only you'd be bored after going through all of that."

He didn't tiptoe around the subject, Sophia appreciated him for that. "Yeah, well, hard to be anything else when you haven't processed it yet."

She really hadn't. She knew what happened to her, knew the solid facts of it all, but all of the emotional burden behind it hadn't hit her yet. She didn't worry about it. It would come when it came, and she would deal with it then.

"Does it help, having him here?"

Sophia raised an eyebrow. "You can ask what you really want to ask, Blake."

He grinned. "So, that's him, huh?"

"That's him."

"His name's Dean?"

"Yep."

"No wonder you turned me down, damn."

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Shut up," she said. "And before you ask, I still have no idea where we are concerning our relationship, so I can't tell you anything."

Blake nodded slowly. "I get that," he said. "But, well, I was here when he came it."

"So was Agent McKenzie, I know, I know, he was distraught and everything."

He paused. "Distraught is one word for it," he said. "But I've never seen someone whose distress led them to be so damn scary. He scared the crap out of half the waiting room. He was desperate to get to you, Sad, Sophia, sorry. And I mean desperate. I was almost sure we were going to have to physically restrain him."

"I put him through hell, Blake. There were a lot of built-up emotions for him. And I get it, he was out there going crazy when I was in here dying. That doesn't mean one thing necessarily. And he hasn't said anything to me about where he wants to go with us."

"That's probably because he's just thankful that he has the time to actually figure that out with you," Blake pointed out. "When he first got here, he probably thought he would never get that chance."

"I just want him to talk to me."

"Have you talked to him?"

Sophia crossed her arms and sulked.

"If it were me, I wouldn't even want to think about putting a label on it right now," Blake said. "He's scared, Sophia. That much is obvious. And as much as you're scared about what he might say, he might be nervous about what you're going to say."

She studied him. "Since when did you get this wise about relationships?" she demanded.

"Ruby's been good to me."

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Just make sure you're good to her," she said pointedly.

"Hey!" Blake said, holding up his hands in defense. "It's me."

"Exactly."

Before they could get into a full-blown argument, the door opened again and Dean came back through, armed with a paper bag filled to the brim. His gaze skirted over Blake but seemed unconcerned.

"I should get back to work," Blake said, standing up. "I'll see you later."

"Thanks for coming by, Blake."

Blake gave Dean a quick nod as he left the room. "He's a doctor here, yeah?" Dean asked, retaking his seat.

Sophia nodded. "Not one of mine, though."

"I met him, briefly. He's the one who convinced your doctors to let me in, even though they were being super strict on visitors."

Sophia's eyes widened. "I didn't know he did that."

"I wouldn't have been able to get in without him."

Sophia ruminated about that fact. "He's, uh, he's been a good friend to me, through all of this," she told Dean. But she was also tired of speaking in half-truths. "He actually asked me out, but I was, you know, a hot mess and I turned him down. But we got close as friends ever since."

Dean didn't even flinch when Sophia talked about Blake's original intentions toward her. "I'm glad you had some people," he said, taking her hand back in his. "I wish..." he trailed off and shook his head. "I know there was no good way to go through all of this, but it sounds like you had some people behind you, even if they didn't know who you actually were."

Sophia nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did. Not just him, there are others here, too, who helped a lot, even if they didn't know that they were helping."

"Agent McKenzie told me your fake name was Sadie."

"Yeah." She frowned. "Not a horrible name, at all, but I never want to be called it again."

"I definitely prefer Sophia."

Well, if that wasn't cryptic. "What did you get?" she asked, nodding toward the bag. She didn't want to talk about her fake life anymore. She was still overly confused about Dean's intentions toward their relationship, and this was only making it worse.

"We're mixing it up," he said. "We have a very exciting assortment of yogurt, pudding, ice cream, and premade smoothies."

He busied himself with organizing his finds. A soft smile crossed Sophia's face as she watched him. God, she wanted him. She wanted him to want her.

Was him being unbothered about Blake a sign that he wasn't interested? Dean was never the overly jealous type, but she had never been asked out by someone else before, especially when they were technically broken up. But Dean was as cool as a cucumber, his only comments as selfless as always.

Sophia turned away from him and stared at the ceiling. Blake's words made sense; Dean wouldn't want to burden her with that conversation while she was lying in a hospital bed. But once she was out? Sophia would need to have that talk soon, or else she was going to explode.